Development and exploitation of undersea petroleum and natural gas deposits includes using offshore facilities to drill and produce oil and gas wells. The development of subsea oil and gas fields requires specialized equipment, including subsea production systems. The equipment must be reliable enough to safe guard the environment, and make the exploitation of the subsea hydrocarbons economically feasible.
A typical subsea system for drilling and producing offshore oil and gas can include the use of process modules that can be used to assist in production. Process modules can include individual components such as production chokes, annulus chokes, sensors, single phase or multi-phase flow meters, etc. A multi-phase flow meter is a device for measuring the velocity and phase composition (water, oil, gas) of fluid flow in a well, usually one completed for production or injection. A single-phase flow meter is a device for measuring the velocity of a single fluid in a well A choke is used to control fluid flow rate or downstream system pressure. The choke is available in several configurations for both fixed and adjustable modes of operation. Adjustable chokes enable the fluid flow and pressure parameters to be changed to suit process or production requirements. Fixed chokes do not provide this flexibility, although they are more resistant to erosion under prolonged operation or production of abrasive fluids. Additionally, the choke may be non-retrievable or retrievable separate from the process module.
Although these components are retrievable, most of these components can include extensive routed piping in between them. This packaging can create multiple connections that create potential leak paths and a large footprint, both of which can be undesirable. In addition, because all of these components are separately retrievable, they can be individually large.